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The Living Organ Volunteer Engagement (LOVE) Act
Increasing living kidney donations to save more lives
94,000+
Americans
are currently waiting for a kidney transplant.
Americans
The wait list
grows every year
Patients wait an average of 3 to 5 years.
grows every year
Every day,
12-17 people die
before a kidney becomes available.
12-17 people die
The LOVE Act is a direct and proven way to change this.
Why Living Donation Matters
Living kidney donation is safe, ethical, and highly successful. The kidney transplant gap can be closed with a new approach to guiding living donors through the process to increase living kidney donations.
Reversing this trend is essential to closing the transplant gap and giving more patients a chance at long, healthy lives.
A National System To Support Living Donation
There is resounding, undeniable evidence that living kidney donors save lives, yet there is no specific or coordinated federal support system to help patients find a donor or guide potential donors through the complex transplant process from start to finish
Too many people who want to donate never complete the journey because they lack help navigating a complex medical, logistical, and financial system. In the last few years, studies have shown that when individuals receive this support, they have greater success in finding a living donor.
The LOVE Act creates a national support structure that ensures both patients and donors get the guidance they need.
Too many people who want to donate never complete the journey because they lack help navigating a complex medical, logistical, and financial system. In the last few years, studies have shown that when individuals receive this support, they have greater success in finding a living donor.
The LOVE Act creates a national support structure that ensures both patients and donors get the guidance they need.
Read the latest report: Losing Transplants For All The Wrong Reasons
View Here
What the LOVE Act Does
Establishes a voluntary program which allows transplant hospitals to employ community based living donor facilitators who are dedicated to:
Helping patients identify potential living donors
Equipping families with the tools and language to ask for a donor
Guiding living donors step by step through the evaluation and donation process
Ensuring no one falls through operational or bureaucratic gaps
Employ Transplant Facilitators
Through the LOVE Act, facilitators would employ a bespoke, concierge-like approach to the process, walking the living donor through every step of the process, from pretesting through post-op and recovery.
Close the Reimbursement Gap
Facilitator services should be reimbursed under the Medicare organ acquisition framework as a cost effective, scalable way to expand living donation and offset recent declines in deceased donation.
Proven Impact:
Saving Lives And Saving Costs
Saving Lives And Saving Costs
Studies show that when patients and donors receive community based, hands-on support, living donor transplants increase significantly. Families who work with a trained facilitator are far more likely to identify a donor, make the ask, and complete the transplant process.
Community-based models have already shown what works. By pairing grassroots outreach with dedicated donor navigation, these programs achieve altruistic living donor rates above 60% and help patients and families successfully identify a donor. They also guide both recipients and donors through each stage of evaluation, coordination, and transplant, ensuring the process is completed smoothly.
Living donation also produces significant savings for the federal government because it reduces Medicare spending on long-term dialysis.
Despite these benefits, support for living donors remains limited. Medicare already reimburses high-cost activities to facilitate deceased donation, including organ recovery, preservation, and even private air transport of organs. Adding reimbursement for the comparatively modest cost of a living donor facilitator is a practical and urgently needed step.
Community-based models have already shown what works. By pairing grassroots outreach with dedicated donor navigation, these programs achieve altruistic living donor rates above 60% and help patients and families successfully identify a donor. They also guide both recipients and donors through each stage of evaluation, coordination, and transplant, ensuring the process is completed smoothly.
Living donation also produces significant savings for the federal government because it reduces Medicare spending on long-term dialysis.
Despite these benefits, support for living donors remains limited. Medicare already reimburses high-cost activities to facilitate deceased donation, including organ recovery, preservation, and even private air transport of organs. Adding reimbursement for the comparatively modest cost of a living donor facilitator is a practical and urgently needed step.
